Behind the end of “Produce 101”, the recruitment of trainees is launching in China
The trend of "Idol" has already started in 2018. And the recruitment of trainees has also proceeded, but to be an "Idol" still needs time to test.

On June 23, 2018, Yang Chaoyue and other ten girls debuted. She got chance to win the third among the ten girls. For this result, she once said, “It was not surprised.”

Perhaps, she has already expected that such a result. Yang Chaoyue is not as excited as other players in the debut, when the third place results are announced. There is no difference on her face and her emotion. She just keeps her straight face, not funny，not frivolous in talking and joking and even there are anxieties through her eyes.

Yang Chaoyue

The ranking of trainees has changed in turn. But Yang Chaoyue continually stays in the third place. It seems that the public have expected the final result. However, when the ranking of debuts is released, there are still many people who cannot accept this result.

Sephirex Wang also commented this on Weibo that “Yang’s debut is to insult the other ten people. It insults their efforts and their business ability.”

From the initial 13, 778 trainees, to 101 contestants, to 11 members of the group, Yang Chaoyue’s singing and dancing ability is not enough to support her stand in this position, which has been recognized as a fact. Meanwhile, it is undeniable that she represents a certain group who are thinking themselves “I’ve worked hard, but still not good enough”. They reflect their self-experience and character design onto Yang Chaoyue who has nickname “Village Belle” wants to be the next Fan Bingbing, finding a value identity and psychological compensation function.

They question and even denounce Yang, projecting the fairness and standards that they believed on her. Some complain for other players who don’t get chance to get in, which it is unfair for them; Some are jealous that Yang can achieve success even if she fails to meet the requirements, regretting that they has failed even though they make great efforts than Yang.

A contestant in a show presented a dream of thousands of people in real life. Perhaps, compared with Meng Meiqi, Wu Xuanyi and the Li Zikai who fail to be chosen and other “great competitor”, Yang Chaoyue is the one that the program needs most. In other words, Yang has surpassed the finalists for 11 people to make a debut. Undoubtedly, it is a well-reasoned result for the “Produce 101” TV Show.

What did Tencent do “right”?

In fact, “Produce 101” is a Reality Show, especially with female groups as the core program. From the perspective of the past positioning of women’s groups in China, the core audiences of women’s groups are dominated by male consumption, with fewer female fans. How to maximize the attention of female audiences, and provide a target audience for all types of female audiences, is the key to success or failure of the “Produce 101”.

This is why in the “Produce 101” competition system, contestant such as Wang Ju who has outstanding personal characteristics, have been retained as auditors. The purpose is to differentiate with people who are like professional products from brokerage firm such as Meng Meiqi, Wu Xuanyi and Li Zixuan, radiated to a larger audience. Jury Ella also said in the program that female fans accounted for 70% of the S.H.E fan base.

Ella

According to the fan portraits on Baidu index today, the female audience of ‘Produce 101’ accounts for 55 %. From the beginning of the program, according to the user portraits provided by 360 people, the figure was even higher, reaching 65 % at that time, which is almost the same as the female audience of “Idol Producer” (67 %).

In addition, during the broadcast of “Produce 101”, the communication of the original group of trainees was significantly declined, and the interaction between girls belonging to the same brokerage company was quite rare. It is also completely different from the situation of “only super Power and Multi-great Power” of “Idol Producer”. No matter the debuting in C position, which means Centre position, of each performance or the rank of each period, there ranking is still changeable. This, on the one hand, has further stimulated fans to thumb up and rank for individuals rather than groups, and weakened the “original group relationship”, which is also conducive to the later integrated operation of “Rocket Girl” by Tencent.

More importantly, Tencent has taken the “lesson” of iQIYI. The 101 women’s group members signed a split contract with the original brokerage company. The “Rocket Girl” will sign a contract with Wajijiwa film and Penguin Films for two years. Compared with iQIYI, Tencent has clearly power and rights in the running business and management than iQIYI.

The launching of the recruitment of trainees, find the right positioning is the key

On June 24th, the new debut “Rocket Girl” participated in the recording of Hunan TV on the second day of the group debuting, and they appear at the recording site of Ma Lanshan in Changsha, along with Leehom Wang, Zhang Jie and Wei Daxun. Netizens have said that this is the fastest female group in China to receive the announce.

It is worth noting that along with them on the announce list, as well as former SNH48 champion Ju Jingyi. In August 2017, SNH48 concluded its fourth general election, and the winner, Ju Jingyi, won 277,800 votes that night, which means her fans invested at least 9,722 million to vote for her.

In December 2017, the former SNH48 Team NII member, Ju Jinyi, announced that she will establish a personal studio, which will be held as an independent artist of the Studio 48 Movie Production. Later, she switched her focus to the field of film and television, however, her popularity was much lower than before. Whether the TV drama “The Story of Yun Xi” or “The Legend of the White Lady” did not cause repercussions. Ju Jinyi is not the actor who has been through the professional training of acting and she is not the actor from the Beijing Film Academy or The Central Academy of Drama, choosing such an acting career has always been questionable.

Relying on the abundant resources and wider professional platforms of Tencent, “rocket girl” will certainly have more opportunities for performing than Ju Jingyi. Those are some assumptions. The final result needs time to be tested, whether those two woman groups would be forgotten by public or survive in the field of film and TV show in the past two years. Or it will be consumed by various activities and announcements. It’s unknown for now. Trainees who fail to get out of the stage are also important in their future personal positioning, as they will face a aggressive market competition.

After experiencing Wang Ju, Yang Chaoyue and the huge attention paid by ‘Idol Producer’ and ‘Produce 101’, China’s idol market has re-validated the fans’ ability to pay at the payment level. Lehua Entertainment, Kunyin Entertainment and the recent successful completion and rapid development of tens of millions of A-round financing, Mai Rui Entertainment, have led the major companies to layout and start running business about the producing “Idol”.

In particular, certain major film and television companies have recently announced the recruitment of trainees. Among them, Jiaxing Media, which has artists such as Yang Mi, Hawick Lau and Dilraba, has released their own “A+ Plan”. Yang Yang and Victoria Song’s brokerage company Kai Yue Entertainment teamed up with Wu Xiubo, Hai Qing and Crystal Zhang’s brokerage company Xi Tian Film to release “Creative Super Star Power” program. Mango Entertainment also released the “2018 Mango Idol Cultivation Plan” to reserve the afterlife of various aspects of entertainment , film and television as soon as possible.

It can be seen from the recruitment of certain major companies that the conditions for the trainees are relatively undemanding. It requires trainees who are basically 15-24 years old, unlimited talent skills, and as long as they have not signed a brokerage contract can be signed up.

After the “Idol Producer” and “Produce 101”, “The Rap of China” and “The Coming one” will also receive broadcast in the second half of 2018. The trend of “Idol” has already started in 2018. And the recruitment of trainees has also proceeded, but to be an “Idol” still needs time to test.